Umbro's North American business is the midst of a full-fledged
turnaround, with total U.S. sales – including licensed catapulting
155% in in the fiscal first half through June. The U.K. sportswear firm
said its U.S. soccer specialty business increased by over 50% during
the period and the distribution agreement with Dick's Sporting Goods is
“progressing well.” As part of its private brands initiative,
Dicks has secured the rights to the Umbro brand for footwear, apparel
and soccer balls,
However, Umbro, which specializes in soccer-related products and
sponsors six clubs in England's top soccer league, said overall pretax
profits dropped 44.5% in the six months to July 1, to £9.8 million
($19.7 mm) as sales declined 49% to £55.7 million ($112.7. mm). Umbro
stressed that the first half results were not directly comparable with
last year, because volume then was boosted by the FIFA World Cup.
But results were still worse than expected due to excess inventories of
England home jerseys and disappointing sales in licensed apparel led to
the downturn.
Total wholesale sales, which include sales by the group's licensees, fell 30% to £175 million $352.5 mm).
CEO Steve Makin said H1 results were as expected, with continued strong
growth in Eastern Europe, the U.S., Latin America and China, but
weakness in its core market.
Umbro expects full year earnings to fall below forecasts.
Separately, Umbro appointed Gary Brown as its new CFO. Brown, who
spent the last four years as finance director of Instore Plc, will take
over in November. In June, Umbro CEO Peter McGuigan resigned and
was replaced by then CFO Steve Makin.
